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Just as the sun was setting upon that melancholy night I saw thelonely figure of the Indian upon the vast plain beneath me, and Iwatched him, our one faint hope of salvation, until he disappearedin the rising mists of evening which lay, rose-tinted from thesetting sun, between the far-off river and me.

It was quite dark when I at last turned back to our strickencamp, and my last vision as I went was the red gleam of Zambo'sfire, the one point of light in the wide world below, as washis faithful presence in my own shadowed soul. And yet I felthappier than I had done since this crushing blow had fallen uponme, for it was good to think that the world should know what wehad done, so that at the worst our names should not perish withour bodies, but should go down to posterity associated with theresult of our labors.

It was an awesome thing to sleep in that ill-fated camp; and yetit was even more unnerving to do so in the jungle. One or theother it must be. Prudence, on the one hand, warned me that Ishould remain on guard, but exhausted Nature, on the other,declared that I should do nothing of the kind. I climbed up onto a limb of the great gingko tree, but there was no secure perchon its rounded surface, and I should certainly have fallen offand broken my neck the moment I began to doze. I got down,therefore, and pondered over what I should do. Finally, I closedthe door of the zareba, lit three separate fires in a triangle,and having eaten a hearty supper dropped off into a profound sleep,from which I had a strange and most welcome awakening. In theearly morning, just as day was breaking, a hand was laid uponmy arm, and starting up, with all my nerves in a tingle and myhand feeling for a rifle, I gave a cry of joy as in the cold graylight I saw Lord John Roxton kneeling beside me.

It was he--and yet it was not he. I had left him calm in hisbearing, correct in his person, prim in his dress. Now he waspale and wild-eyed, gasping as he breathed like one who has runfar and fast. His gaunt face was scratched and bloody, hisclothes were hanging in rags, and his hat was gone. I stared inamazement, but he gave me no chance for questions. He wasgrabbing at our stores all the time he spoke.

"Quick, young fellah! Quick!" he cried. "Every moment counts. Get the rifles, both of them. I have the other two. Now, all thecartridges you can gather. Fill up your pockets. Now, some food. Half a dozen tins will do. That's all right! Don't wait to talkor think. Get a move on, or we are done!"

Still half-awake, and unable to imagine what it all might mean, Ifound myself hurrying madly after him through the wood, a rifleunder each arm and a pile of various stores in my hands. He dodgedin and out through the thickest of the scrub until he came to adense clump of brush-wood. Into this he rushed, regardless ofthorns, and threw himself into the heart of it, pulling me downby his side.

"There!" he panted. "I think we are safe here. They'll make forthe camp as sure as fate. It will be their first idea. But thisshould puzzle 'em."

"What is it all?" I asked, when I had got my breath. "Where arethe professors? And who is it that is after us?"

"The ape-men," he cried. "My God, what brutes! Don't raise yourvoice, for they have long ears--sharp eyes, too, but no power ofscent, so far as I could judge, so I don't think they can sniffus out. Where have you been, young fellah? You were well out of it."

In a few sentences I whispered what I had done.

"Pretty bad," said he, when he had heard of the dinosaur and the pit. "It isn't quite the place for a rest cure. What? But I had no ideawhat its possibilities were until those devils got hold of us. The man-eatin' Papuans had me once, but they are Chesterfieldscompared to this crowd."

"How did it happen?" I asked.

"It was in the early mornin'. Our learned friends were just stirrin'. Hadn't even begun to argue yet. Suddenly it rained apes. They camedown as thick as apples out of a tree. They had been assemblin'in the dark, I suppose, until that great tree over our heads washeavy with them. I shot one of them through the belly, but beforewe knew where we were they had us spread-eagled on our backs. I callthem apes, but they carried sticks and stones in their hands andjabbered talk to each other, and ended up by tyin' our hands withcreepers, so they are ahead of any beast that I have seen inmy wanderin's. Ape-men--that's what they are--Missin' Links, andI wish they had stayed missin'. They carried off their woundedcomrade--he was bleedin' like a pig--and then they sat around us,and if ever I saw frozen murder it was in their faces. They werebig fellows, as big as a man and a deal stronger. Curious glassygray eyes they have, under red tufts, and they just sat and gloatedand gloated. Challenger is no chicken, but even he was cowed. He managed to struggle to his feet, and yelled out at them to havedone with it and get it over. I think he had gone a bit off hishead at the suddenness of it, for he raged and cursed at themlike a lunatic. If they had been a row of his favorite Pressmenhe could not have slanged them worse."

"Well, what did they do?" I was enthralled by the strange storywhich my companion was whispering into my ear, while all the timehis keen eyes were shooting in every direction and his handgrasping his cocked rifle.

"I thought it was the end of us, but instead of that it startedthem on a new line. They all jabbered and chattered together. Then one of them stood out beside Challenger. You'll smile,young fellah, but 'pon my word they might have been kinsmen. I couldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. This old ape-man--he was their chief--was a sort of red Challenger,with every one of our friend's beauty points, only just a triflemore so. He had the short body, the big shoulders, the round chest,no neck, a great ruddy frill of a beard, the tufted eyebrows,the `What do you want, damn you!' look about the eyes, and thewhole catalogue. When the ape-man stood by Challenger and put hispaw on his shoulder, the thing was complete. Summerlee was a bithysterical, and he laughed till he cried. The ape-men laughed too--or at least they put up the devil of a cacklin'--and they set towork to drag us off through the forest. They wouldn't touch theguns and things--thought them dangerous, I expect--but they carriedaway all our loose food. Summerlee and I got some rough handlin'on the way--there's my skin and my clothes to prove it--for theytook us a bee-line through the brambles, and their own hides arelike leather. But Challenger was all right. Four of them carriedhim shoulder high, and he went like a Roman emperor. What's that?"

It was a strange clicking noise in the distance not unlike castanets.

"There they go!" said my companion, slipping cartridges into thesecond double barrelled "Express." "Load them all up, youngfellah my lad, for we're not going to be taken alive, and don'tyou think it! That's the row they make when they are excited. By George! they'll have something to excite them if they put us up. The `Last Stand of the Grays' won't be in it. `With theirrifles grasped in their stiffened hands, mid a ring of the deadand dyin',' as some fathead sings. Can you hear them now?"

"Very far away."

"That little lot will do no good, but I expect their searchparties are all over the wood. Well, I was telling you my taleof woe. They got us soon to this town of theirs--about athousand huts of branches and leaves in a great grove of treesnear the edge of the cliff. It's three or four miles from here. The filthy beasts fingered me all over, and I feel as if I shouldnever be clean again. They tied us up--the fellow who handled mecould tie like a bosun--and there we lay with our toes up,beneath a tree, while a great brute stood guard over us with aclub in his hand. When I say `we' I mean Summerlee and myself. Old Challenger was up a tree, eatin' pines and havin' the time ofhis life. I'm bound to say that he managed to get some fruit tous, and with his own hands he loosened our bonds. If you'd seenhim sitting up in that tree hob-nobbin' with his twinbrother--and singin' in that rollin' bass of his, `Ring out, wildbells,' cause music of any kind seemed to put 'em in a goodhumor, you'd have smiled; but we weren't in much mood forlaughin', as you can guess. They were inclined, within limits,to let him do what he liked, but they drew the line prettysharply at us. It was a mighty consolation to us all to knowthat you were runnin' loose and had the archives in your keepin'.

"Well, now, young fellah, I'll tell you what will surprise you. You say you saw signs of men, and fires, traps, and the like. Well, we have seen the natives themselves. Poor devils theywere, down-faced little chaps, and had enough to make them so. It seems that the humans hold one side of this plateau--overyonder, where you saw the caves--and the ape-men hold this side,and there is bloody war between them all the time. That's thesituation, so far as I could follow it. Well, yesterday theape-men got hold of a dozen of the humans and brought them inas prisoners. You never heard such a jabberin' and shriekin' inyour life. The men were little red fellows, and had been bittenand clawed so that they could hardly walk. The ape-men put twoof them to death there and then--fairly pulled the arm off one ofthem--it was perfectly beastly. Plucky little chaps they are,and hardly gave a squeak. But it turned us absolutely sick. Summerlee fainted, and even Challenger had as much as he could stand. I think they have cleared, don't you?"

We listened intently, but nothing save the calling of the birds brokethe deep peace of the forest. Lord Roxton went on with his story.

"I Think you have had the escape of your life, young fellah my lad. It was catchin' those Indians that put you clean out of their heads,else they would have been back to the camp for you as sure as fateand gathered you in. Of course, as you said, they have been watchin'us from the beginnin' out of that tree, and they knew perfectly wellthat we were one short. However, they could think only of this newhaul; so it was I, and not a bunch of apes, that dropped in on youin the morning. Well, we had a horrid business afterwards. My God!what a nightmare the whole thing is! You remember the great bristleof sharp canes down below where we found the skeleton of the American? Well, that is just under ape-town, and that's the jumpin'-off placeof their prisoners. I expect there's heaps of skeletons there, ifwe looked for 'em. They have a sort of clear parade-ground onthe top, and they make a proper ceremony about it. One by one thepoor devils have to jump, and the game is to see whether they aremerely dashed to pieces or whether they get skewered on the canes. They took us out to see it, and the whole tribe lined up on the edge. Four of the Indians jumped, and the canes went through 'em likeknittin' needles through a pat of butter. No wonder we found thatpoor Yankee's skeleton with the canes growin' between his ribs. It was horrible--but it was doocedly interestin' too. We were allfascinated to see them take the dive, even when we thought it wouldbe our turn next on the spring-board.

"Well, it wasn't. They kept six of the Indians up for to-day--that's how I understood it--but I fancy we were to be thestar performers in the show. Challenger might get off, butSummerlee and I were in the bill. Their language is more thanhalf signs, and it was not hard to follow them. So I thought itwas time we made a break for it. I had been plottin' it out abit, and had one or two things clear in my mind. It was all onme, for Summerlee was useless and Challenger not much better. The only time they got together they got slangin' because theycouldn't agree upon the scientific classification of thesered-headed devils that had got hold of us. One said it was thedryopithecus of Java, the other said it was pithecanthropus. Madness, I call it--Loonies, both. But, as I say, I had thoughtout one or two points that were helpful. One was that thesebrutes could not run as fast as a man in the open. They haveshort, bandy legs, you see, and heavy bodies. Even Challengercould give a few yards in a hundred to the best of them, and youor I would be a perfect Shrubb. Another point was that they knewnothin' about guns. I don't believe they ever understood how thefellow I shot came by his hurt. If we could get at our gunsthere was no sayin' what we could do.

"So I broke away early this mornin', gave my guard a kick in thetummy that laid him out, and sprinted for the camp. There I gotyou and the guns, and here we are."

"But the professors!" I cried, in consternation.

"Well, we must just go back and fetch 'em. I couldn't bring 'emwith me. Challenger was up the tree, and Summerlee was not fitfor the effort. The only chance was to get the guns and trya rescue. Of course they may scupper them at once in revenge. I don't think they would touch Challenger, but I wouldn't answerfor Summerlee. But they would have had him in any case. Of thatI am certain. So I haven't made matters any worse by boltin'. But we are honor bound to go back and have them out or see itthrough with them. So you can make up your soul, young fellah mylad, for it will be one way or the other before evenin'."

I have tried to imitate here Lord Roxton's jerky talk, his short,strong sentences, the half-humorous, half-reckless tone that ranthrough it all. But he was a born leader. As danger thickenedhis jaunty manner would increase, his speech become more racy,his cold eyes glitter into ardent life, and his Don Quixotemoustache bristle with joyous excitement. His love of danger,his intense appreciation of the drama of an adventure--all themore intense for being held tightly in--his consistent view thatevery peril in life is a form of sport, a fierce game betwixt youand Fate, with Death as a forfeit, made him a wonderful companionat such hours. If it were not for our fears as to the fate ofour companions, it would have been a positive joy to throw myselfwith such a man into such an affair. We were rising from ourbrushwood hiding-place when suddenly I felt his grip upon my arm.

"By George!" he whispered, "here they come!"

From where we lay we could look down a brown aisle, arched withgreen, formed by the trunks and branches. Along this a party ofthe ape-men were passing. They went in single file, with bent legsand rounded backs, their hands occasionally touching the ground,their heads turning to left and right as they trotted along. Their crouching gait took away from their height, but I shouldput them at five feet or so, with long arms and enormous chests. Many of them carried sticks, and at the distance they looked likea line of very hairy and deformed human beings. For a moment Icaught this clear glimpse of them. Then they were lost amongthe bushes.

"Not this time," said Lord John, who had caught up his rifle. "Our best chance is to lie quiet until they have given up the search. Then we shall see whether we can't get back to their town and hit'em where it hurts most. Give 'em an hour and we'll march."

We filled in the time by opening one of our food tins and makingsure of our breakfast. Lord Roxton had had nothing but somefruit since the morning before and ate like a starving man. Then, at last, our pockets bulging with cartridges and a rifle ineach hand, we started off upon our mission of rescue. Before leavingit we carefully marked our little hiding-place among the brush-woodand its bearing to Fort Challenger, that we might find it again ifwe needed it. We slunk through the bushes in silence until we cameto the very edge of the cliff, close to the old camp. There wehalted, and Lord John gave me some idea of his plans.

"So long as we are among the thick trees these swine are ourmasters, said he. They can see us and we cannot see them. But inthe open it is different. There we can move faster than they. So we must stick to the open all we can. The edge of the plateauhas fewer large trees than further inland. So that's our lineof advance. Go slowly, keep your eyes open and your rifle ready. Above all, never let them get you prisoner while there is acartridge left--that's my last word to you, young fellah."

When we reached the edge of the cliff I looked over and saw ourgood old black Zambo sitting smoking on a rock below us. I wouldhave given a great deal to have hailed him and told him how wewere placed, but it was too dangerous, lest we should be heard. The woods seemed to be full of the ape-men; again and again weheard their curious clicking chatter. At such times we plungedinto the nearest clump of bushes and lay still until the soundhad passed away. Our advance, therefore, was very slow, and twohours at least must have passed before I saw by Lord John'scautious movements that we must be close to our destination. He motioned to me to lie still, and he crawled forward himself. In a minute he was back again, his face quivering with eagerness.

"Come!" said he. "Come quick! I hope to the Lord we are not toolate already!

I found myself shaking with nervous excitement as I scrambledforward and lay down beside him, looking out through the bushesat a clearing which stretched before us.

It was a sight which I shall never forget until my dying day--soweird, so impossible, that I do not know how I am to make yourealize it, or how in a few years I shall bring myself to believein it if I live to sit once more on a lounge in the Savage Cluband look out on the drab solidity of the Embankment. I know thatit will seem then to be some wild nightmare, some delirium of fever. Yet I will set it down now, while it is still fresh in my memory,and one at least, the man who lay in the damp grasses by my side,will know if I have lied.

A wide, open space lay before us--some hundreds of yardsacross--all green turf and low bracken growing to the very edgeof the cliff. Round this clearing there was a semi-circle oftrees with curious huts built of foliage piled one above theother among the branches. A rookery, with every nest a littlehouse, would best convey the idea. The openings of these hutsand the branches of the trees were thronged with a dense mob ofape-people, whom from their size I took to be the females andinfants of the tribe. They formed the background of the picture,and were all looking out with eager interest at the same scenewhich fascinated and bewildered us.

In the open, and near the edge of the cliff, there had assembleda crowd of some hundred of these shaggy, red-haired creatures,many of them of immense size, and all of them horrible to look upon. There was a certain discipline among them, for none of themattempted to break the line which had been formed. In frontthere stood a small group of Indians--little, clean-limbed, redfellows, whose skins glowed like polished bronze in the strong sunlight. A tall, thin white man was standing beside them, his head bowed,his arms folded, his whole attitude expressive of his horrorand dejection. There was no mistaking the angular form ofProfessor Summerlee.

In front of and around this dejected group of prisoners were severalape-men, who watched them closely and made all escape impossible. Then, right out from all the others and close to the edge of thecliff, were two figures, so strange, and under other circumstancesso ludicrous, that they absorbed my attention. The one was ourcomrade, Professor Challenger. The remains of his coat still hungin strips from his shoulders, but his shirt had been all torn out,and his great beard merged itself in the black tangle whichcovered his mighty chest. He had lost his hat, and his hair,which had grown long in our wanderings, was flying in wild disorder. A single day seemed to have changed him from the highest productof modern civilization to the most desperate savage in South America. Beside him stood his master, the king of the ape-men. In all thingshe was, as Lord John had said, the very image of our Professor,save that his coloring was red instead of black. The same short,broad figure, the same heavy shoulders, the same forward hang ofthe arms, the same bristling beard merging itself in the hairy chest. Only above the eyebrows, where the sloping forehead and low, curvedskull of the ape-man were in sharp contrast to the broad brow andmagnificent cranium of the European, could one see any marked difference. At every other point the king was an absurd parody of the Professor.

All this, which takes me so long to describe, impressed itselfupon me in a few seconds. Then we had very different things tothink of, for an active drama was in progress. Two of theape-men had seized one of the Indians out of the group anddragged him forward to the edge of the cliff. The king raisedhis hand as a signal. They caught the man by his leg and arm, andswung him three times backwards and forwards with tremendous violence. Then, with a frightful heave they shot the poor wretch overthe precipice. With such force did they throw him that he curvedhigh in the air before beginning to drop. As he vanished from sight,the whole assembly, except the guards, rushed forward to the edgeof the precipice, and there was a long pause of absolute silence,broken by a mad yell of delight. They sprang about, tossing theirlong, hairy arms in the air and howling with exultation. Then theyfell back from the edge, formed themselves again into line, andwaited for the next victim.

This time it was Summerlee. Two of his guards caught him by thewrists and pulled him brutally to the front. His thin figure andlong limbs struggled and fluttered like a chicken being draggedfrom a coop. Challenger had turned to the king and waved hishands frantically before him. He was begging, pleading,imploring for his comrade's life. The ape-man pushed him roughlyaside and shook his head. It was the last conscious movement hewas to make upon earth. Lord John's rifle cracked, and the kingsank down, a tangled red sprawling thing, upon the ground.

"Shoot into the thick of them! Shoot! sonny, shoot!" criedmy companion.

There are strange red depths in the soul of the most commonplace man. I am tenderhearted by nature, and have found my eyes moist many atime over the scream of a wounded hare. Yet the blood lust was onme now. I found myself on my feet emptying one magazine, then theother, clicking open the breech to re-load, snapping it to again,while cheering and yelling with pure ferocity and joy of slaughteras I did so. With our four guns the two of us made a horrible havoc. Both the guards who held Summerlee were down, and he was staggeringabout like a drunken man in his amazement, unable to realize thathe was a free man. The dense mob of ape-men ran about inbewilderment, marveling whence this storm of death was coming orwhat it might mean. They waved, gesticulated, screamed, and trippedup over those who had fallen. Then, with a sudden impulse, they allrushed in a howling crowd to the trees for shelter, leaving theground behind them spotted with their stricken comrades. The prisonerswere left for the moment standing alone in the middle of the clearing.

Challenger's quick brain had grasped the situation. He seizedthe bewildered Summerlee by the arm, and they both ran towards us. Two of their guards bounded after them and fell to two bulletsfrom Lord John. We ran forward into the open to meet our friends,and pressed a loaded rifle into the hands of each. But Summerleewas at the end of his strength. He could hardly totter. Already the ape-men were recovering from their panic. They werecoming through the brushwood and threatening to cut us off. Challenger and I ran Summerlee along, one at each of hiselbows, while Lord John covered our retreat, firing again andagain as savage heads snarled at us out of the bushes. For amile or more the chattering brutes were at our very heels. Then the pursuit slackened, for they learned our power and wouldno longer face that unerring rifle. When we had at last reachedthe camp, we looked back and found ourselves alone.

So it seemed to us; and yet we were mistaken. We had hardlyclosed the thornbush door of our zareba, clasped each other'shands, and thrown ourselves panting upon the ground beside ourspring, when we heard a patter of feet and then a gentle,plaintive crying from outside our entrance. Lord Roxton rushedforward, rifle in hand, and threw it open. There, prostrate upontheir faces, lay the little red figures of the four survivingIndians, trembling with fear of us and yet imploring our protection. With an expressive sweep of his hands one of them pointed to thewoods around them, and indicated that they were full of danger. Then, darting forward, he threw his arms round Lord John's legs,and rested his face upon them.

"By George!" cried our peer, pulling at his moustache in greatperplexity, "I say--what the deuce are we to do with these people? Get up, little chappie, and take your face off my boots."

Summerlee was sitting up and stuffing some tobacco into his old briar.

"We've got to see them safe," said he. "You've pulled us all outof the jaws of death. My word! it was a good bit of work!"

"Admirable!" cried Challenger. "Admirable! Not only we asindividuals, but European science collectively, owe you a deepdebt of gratitude for what you have done. I do not hesitate tosay that the disappearance of Professor Summerlee and myselfwould have left an appreciable gap in modern zoological history. Our young friend here and you have done most excellently well."

He beamed at us with the old paternal smile, but European sciencewould have been somewhat amazed could they have seen their chosenchild, the hope of the future, with his tangled, unkempt head,his bare chest, and his tattered clothes. He had one of themeat-tins between his knees, and sat with a large piece of coldAustralian mutton between his fingers. The Indian looked up athim, and then, with a little yelp, cringed to the ground andclung to Lord John's leg.

"Don't you be scared, my bonnie boy," said Lord John, patting thematted head in front of him. "He can't stick your appearance,Challenger; and, by George! I don't wonder. All right, littlechap, he's only a human, just the same as the rest of us."

"Really, sir!" cried the Professor.

"Well, it's lucky for you, Challenger, that you ARE a little outof the ordinary. If you hadn't been so like the king----"

"Upon my word, Lord John, you allow yourself great latitude."

"Well, it's a fact."

"I beg, sir, that you will change the subject. Your remarks areirrelevant and unintelligible. The question before us is what arewe to do with these Indians? The obvious thing is to escort themhome, if we knew where their home was."

"There is no difficulty about that," said I. "They live inthe caves on the other side of the central lake."

"Our young friend here knows where they live. I gather that itis some distance."

"A good twenty miles," said I.

Summerlee gave a groan.

"I, for one, could never get there. Surely I hear those brutesstill howling upon our track."

As he spoke, from the dark recesses of the woods we heard faraway the jabbering cry of the ape-men. The Indians once more setup a feeble wail of fear.

"We must move, and move quick!" said Lord John. "You helpSummerlee, young fellah. These Indians will carry stores. Now, then, come along before they can see us."

In less than half-an-hour we had reached our brushwood retreatand concealed ourselves. All day we heard the excited calling ofthe ape-men in the direction of our old camp, but none of themcame our way, and the tired fugitives, red and white, had a long,deep sleep. I was dozing myself in the evening when someoneplucked my sleeve, and I found Challenger kneeling beside me.

"You keep a diary of these events, and you expect eventually topublish it, Mr. Malone," said he, with solemnity.

"I am only here as a Press reporter," I answered.

"Exactly. You may have heard some rather fatuous remarks ofLord John Roxton's which seemed to imply that there was some--some resemblance----"

"Yes, I heard them."

"I need not say that any publicity given to such an idea--anylevity in your narrative of what occurred--would be exceedinglyoffensive to me."

"I will keep well within the truth."

"Lord John's observations are frequently exceedingly fanciful,and he is capable of attributing the most absurd reasons to therespect which is always shown by the most undeveloped races todignity and character. You follow my meaning?"

"Entirely."

"I leave the matter to your discretion." Then, after a longpause, he added: "The king of the ape-men was really acreature of great distinction--a most remarkably handsome andintelligent personality. Did it not strike you?"

"A most remarkable creature," said I.

And the Professor, much eased in his mind, settled down to hisslumber once more.